Le Boulet (Dead Weight), the eagerly awaited action comedy starring Gerard Lanvin and Benoit Poelvoorde, stormed to the top of the French box office charts at the weekend with nationwide grosses of Euro 6.4m ($5.6m). Jointly produced by Warner Bros France and La Petite Reine, the $21m feature screened at 834 sites and registered more than 1.1m admissions.

The film beat off competition from the local language Parle Avec Elle and the Japanese animated hit Spirited Away. It is directed by Alain Berberian (Paparazzi, La Cite de la Peur).

Le Boulet is another hit for Warner's French office under Francis Boepflug which enjoyed last year's smash La Verite Si Je Mens 2 and is actively boarding other projects such as Cedric Klapisch's Ni Pour Ni Contre.